Free Launch Pad Lecture Friday July 4

(Alamogordo, New Mexico) - On August 16, 1960, USAF Colonel Joe Kittinger took the “highest step in the world”. He stepped out of a high-altitude balloon at 102,800 feet and jumped to earth, setting four world records. Fifty two years later, Joe served as Mission Control’s primary point of contact for the man set on breaking his record for the parachute jump from the highest altitude – Austrian Felix Baumgartner. Learn why Joe did it in the first place, and how Holloman Air Force Base was instrumental in his success at this Friday’s Launch Pad Lecture at the New Mexico Museum of Space History. The presenter is Museum Education Specialist Michael Shinabery.

The Launch Pad Lecture is free to the public and starts at 9:00 am on the first floor of the museum. Coffee and donuts are compliments of the International Space Hall of Fame Foundation. The next lecture will be on Friday, August 1, and the topic will be How Do They Do It? Eating and Eliminating in Space with Museum Executive Director Chris Orwoll.